


Sleepwalker

by Ricochet713



Series: Tumblr Prompt Ficlets [7]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Anxiety, Comfort, Feels, Fluff and Angst, I just want these two to be happy and safe that's all I want, Jack is a sleepwalker and Gabriel is the one thing that helps, M/M, Major Character Injury, Medication, Post-Collapse Overwatch, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Reaper76 - Freeform, Sleepwalking, Tumblr Prompt, lots of angst and feels with fluff in-between, who needs sleeping pills when you have a charming undead boyfriend to comfort you
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-12
Updated: 2017-03-12
Packaged: 2018-10-03 05:10:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10236593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ricochet713/pseuds/Ricochet713
Summary: Jack has been prone to sleepwalking ever since the SEP, and the only one that could help was Gabriel. After the explosion of the Swiss HQ and their supposed deaths, Jack's poor sleeping habits have only gotten worse, and are becoming increasingly dangerous to his health.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Oh look, I'm alive! It's been a few weeks since I last posted anything and I'm very very very sorry, uni has been a bit of a nightmare but I'm getting back on track! Expect to see more works and updates to my longer works on the way!
> 
> This was a wonderful prompt by the lovely hungarianbee on tumblr (who has sent me some fantastic prompts in the past as well). It was such a unique idea and one I'd never really looked into that I just had to write it straight away! It's been pretty popular on tumblr so I thought I'd share it here as well. If you're on tumblr, check it out here:  
>  https://keepcalm-reapon.tumblr.com/post/158096508461/glad-to-see-youre-open-boo-can-i-get-some  
> Feel free to shoot me a prompt while you're at it!
> 
> If you like this, please please let me know!! Feedback is the fuel all authors need to keep writing!

Jack had never been a deep sleeper at the best of times, but ever since the HQ explosion, he’d been even worse. It wasn’t unusual, in the years that he wondered alone as the vigilante Soldier: 76, for him to find himself in places he was certain he hadn’t fallen asleep in: quiet suburban parks, alleyways, paddocks, even once or twice in someone’s backyard. If he wasn’t in the habit of waking up shortly after having slept walked, there was a fairly good chance he’d have gotten himself either caught or killed. Then there were times when he didn’t just walk; he’d once woken up in the middle of trying to break in to someone’s house. Recognising that he was gradually becoming a danger to himself, he had started going as far as tying up his feet before sleeping, as long as he was reasonably sure that no one would try to get the jump on him during the night.

From what he could remember, Jack suspected that the sleep walking had really started during his years in the SEP. He had shared a room with Gabriel back then – an assigned living situation that neither of them had been thrilled about to begin with, but that Jack later came to consider a blessing. He remembered Gabriel telling him about the first time it had happened.

_“I didn’t know what the fuck you were doing, man! You just, got up out of bed and started trying to open the door. I told you to get the fuck back to sleep but you were like a zombie. It creeped me out!”_

Thankfully, Gabriel knew that you couldn’t just wake someone up while they were walking. It became almost a routine for Gabriel to hear Jack opening the door, get up and go after him, and gently coax him back to bed. Sometimes Jack remembered Gabriel’s voice through the haze of his dreaming, soft and fuzzy and warm. _“C’mon, Jackie, let’s get you back to bed now. You’re tired, right? Better get some sleep, hey? There you go…”_

Once he’d started crying in his sleep, and Gabriel had sat with him for hours until he’d woken up, throat raw and eyes burning, Gabriel’s arms wrapped tightly around him, rocking him back and forth. _“You’re ok, Jackie, I got you… I got you…”_

He’d tried to apologise later for being such a nuisance, for keeping Gabriel up at night, for having to have someone look out for him… It had made him feel weak at the time, especially when Gabriel seemed so assured, so solid, so steady. But Gabriel had laughed, ruffled his hair, told him to stop being so worried about everything all the time, he didn’t mind.

His influence had soothed Jack, a lullaby to placate his rapid-fire nerves, and when they eventually fore-went separate beds in favour of sharing on, Jack’s sleep walking stopped almost entirely. It started again after Overwatch’s formation, his promotion to Strike Commander, Gabriel’s assignment to Blackwatch, and the growing rift between them as forces greater than them tried to pull them apart. More often than not, his sleep walking during those years had brought him straight to Gabriel’s room, knocking on his door to stand there mumbling apologies and ‘I love you’s’ until Gabriel led him back to his quarters with a huff and a scowl and a ‘ _goddammit Jack…’_

One night he hadn’t been so fortunate; Reinhardt had stumbled across him on one of his nightly wanders, and had tried to wake him. He’d started screaming and yelling, striking out at anyone and anything, until Gabriel’s voice had drawn him back to himself, back to awareness, and snuffed out the panic in an instant. After that, Angela had given him sleep medication, to prevent any further incidents.

Now, with Overwatch reformed and renewed, Jack had a home again – or, at least, a base of operations. When she had carried out a particularly rigorous medical examination, Angela had asked him about his sleeping.

“It’s… not great,” Jack admitted, shrugging his jacket back over his shoulders. Usually being stripped to the bone for medical didn’t bother Jack, but now, with his body painted by scars and burns, he’d found himself to be surprisingly self-conscious.

Angela clicked her tongue. “I take it that means you’re still sleep walking?”

“Every now and again.”

His non-committal answer prompted a scowl from Angela – never a good sign. She crossed to one of her cabinets, heels clicking against the metal floor.  “We can’t have that, not with our enemies trying to sneak into the Watchpoint,” she chided him, fiddling around with a few bottles and boxes. “If you were wandering around the base unaware when Talon…”

“I know, I know,” sighed Jack, rubbing a hand over his neck. He held his other hand out for the small box Angela passed to him, trying not to meet her frown.

“One a night. You should know the drill.”

“Got it.”

The box still sat unopened on his drawer when Jack fell into a restless sleep that night, tossing and grumbling.

 

 

Everything was burning.

Through the haze around him, all he could see was fire and debris, all he could hear was the crackle of flames and the groans of melting metal. His duster hung ruined from his shoulders, his gloves seared away to expose the red burns across his hands, the visor lost. He limped, staggered through the chaos, half-blind and disoriented. What had happened? _How_ had it happened? Had anyone else survived? Who could have…?

His foot caught on a piece of rubble and he fell to his knees, crying out in pain as his raw hands hit the debris-strewn ground. Cool tears fell from his eyes, soothing his burnt cheeks, a surprisingly welcome feeling. He scrambled on through the dirt towards the blazing mass of collapsed wall and machinery, forcing himself forward through the pain.

“ _GABRIEL!”_ he rasped, his voice torn up from the smoke and ash. His lungs heaved and he doubled over, coughing hot dust. “ _Gabriel!_ ” he tried again, dragging himself forward once more. _“Gabriel, where are you?!_ ”

No reply came from the haze or the rubble where Gabriel had been, nothing from the massive slabs of concrete that had fallen where he stood, from the flames that were rapidly devouring all that it could. More tears blurred his vision, but now, so close to the fire, he felt them evaporate before they could reach his cheeks. “ _Gabriel, please! Answer me!_ ”

His voice was so weak he barely made a sound now. It cracked and ached and burned up his throat with every attempt, but still he kept calling, kept crawling through the rubble, digging with his destroyed hands, his skin to hot it felt like it was burning away.

“ _Please, Gabriel… Please answer me… I need you… I can’t lose you…_ ”

He collapsed, sobbing and shuddering. Let it end here! Gabriel, Overwatch, all his friends… they were all gone. And without them, without Gabriel, Jack might as well be gone, too. Let him die here with them.

“ _Jack…_ ”

He looked up, alarmed, eyes straining through the smoke. “ _Gabriel?!_ ”

“ _Jack, it’s ok… it’s me…”_

Frantic, he tried to get to his knees, reaching out. “Gabriel! Gabriel where are you? Please, I’m here, are you alright?”

“ _I’m right here, I’m fine, Jackie_.”

His hand felt something, something warm, something _alive_ ; he clutched it, dragged himself towards it, hung to it as though sheer force alone would make it real. Tears fell freely, wetting his scarred face. “Gabriel! Oh, thank God you’re ok!” He couldn’t see anything but the flames, but Gabriel’s voice sounded so close… It was raspy and ruined, like his own, butchered by the explosion, but it was still so soft, so gentle, so close… His hands ached dully as they grasped at him. “Gabriel, Gabe, don’t go… Please, don’t die on me… I need you…”

A hand brushed against his hair, wound around him, pulled him in. “ _It’s ok, Jack, I’ve got you. I’m not going anywhere, ever again. I promise._ ”

Jack shut his eyes, letting that voice sink through the heat and pain and down into his weary bones. Then the reek of smoke and death was gone, the crackling flames died down, and the world swayed, shifting around him; the solid comfort of Gabriel beside him remained, a grounding constant as, with a jerk, he woke.

His eyes snapped open, he gasped, and then he was back again, huddled on the cold floor of the Watchpoint basement, naked aside from his trousers, trembling and sweating. And right beside him, arms wrapped around him, was Gabriel.

“Jack…?”

A shudder rocked him. “G-Gabe… What…?”

“You were sleepwalking. Are you alright?”

He made to lift himself from the floor, and Gabriel helped him into a sitting position. “Yeah, I… It was a bad one. How did you find me?” He looked across at Gabriel, unable to help the brief startle at the sight of the faint red glimmer in his dark eyes – a remnant of the Reaper, lurking just under the surface. A reminder that the explosion hadn’t just been a terrible, awful dream.

“Couldn’t sleep,” Gabriel huffed, watching him carefully. “I was patrolling the halls when I heard you.”

“Oh. Sorry…”

The dark eyes narrowed in concern. “You… were saying my name. A lot. And you were crying.”

Jack looked away, staring instead at the scars across his palms, where the burning rubble had seared through his skin six years ago. “I was… back at the Swiss HQ. When…”

“The explosion?”

“Yeah.”

“Ah.” They sat silently for a moment, neither looking at the other, Gabriel’s hand resting comfortingly on Jack’s still shaking shoulder. “I… often dream about it, too,” Gabriel said at last, quietly.”

Jack glanced across at him. “Least you don’t go yelling through the halls in your sleep about it.”

Gabriel gave a sigh through his nose, lips twitching in a sad half-grin. “Maybe not through the halls, but I sometimes wake up yelling. Sometimes I… try to hurt people near me, before they learned to leave me alone.”

He sighed again, deeper this time, and Jack turned to him fully. “It’s not good to be alone when you go through that.” He offered Gabriel a small smile. “I remember that someone very special used to comfort me whenever I got upset by my dreams. Always acted like it didn’t drive him mad.”

Gabriel looked up at him, one eyebrow cocked. “Oh, I’m pretty sure you drove him mad, just not that way.”

They both laughed, a half-hearted and quiet sound, but it was enough to break the mood, and Jack finally felt his trembling subside.

“Thanks for coming to check on me.”

“Just like old times, right?” Gabriel shrugged.

“You did always seem to know when I needed you.”

“Guess old habits die hard.”

They watched each other for a moment, so close Jack could feel the warmth of Gabriel’s accelerated nanites radiating from him, until a yawn stole over him and he was forced to lean back.

“You’re tired,” grunted Gabriel. “Time for me to drag you back to bed.”

Jack tried to mumble a protest as Gabriel rose and hoisted Jack to his feet, but he felt suddenly exhausted, and the thought of curling up beneath a blanket once again was becoming very appealing… He walked along, his weight half-supported by Gabriel, back towards the dormitories.

By the time they’d reached the door to Jack’s room, left open when he’d wandered out, Jack was almost too tired to stand on his own. Thankfully Gabriel guided him across the room to the small bed, where he flopped down with a sigh. Gabriel lingered for a moment, scanning his eyes around the room until he caught sight of a small box on the dresser.

“You should probably be taking these, you know,” he grumbled, reaching down to pick up the box of sleeping pills.

Jack looked over at them, grimacing. “I don’t need ‘em.”

Gabriel raised an eyebrow. “Jack…”

“No, I mean, they don’t work.” He forced himself to sit up, supporting his weight on his elbows. “Nothing does. Except for you.”

The surprise on Gabriel’s face would have been amusing had it not been so quickly replaced by a look of such intense grief that Jack felt any scraps of humour wash hurriedly away.

“Jack…” he murmured, sternly.

“It’s true,” insisted Jack, not backing down. “Knowing I’ve got you nearby… it’s the only thing that calms me enough to sleep properly.”

“Jack, you know that I… I can’t…” Gabriel turned away, making to leave, but Jack hurriedly leant forward to grab his arm.

“Please, Gabriel.” He tried to tug the other man back towards the bad, but Gabriel was immovable. “I know you won’t hurt me. You’ve proven that you can control it – you’re here, aren’t you?”

“It’s not that simple, Jack!” Gabriel whirled around, sounding both angry and hurt, frustrated and sad. “I… I can control it, most of the time. But what if I slip up? What if, while I’m sleeping… I can’t risk it, Jack. I can’t hurt you.”

“You won’t.” Jack kept his grip on Gabriel, unable to pull him closer but refusing to let him slip away. He knew that, if Gabriel wanted to, he could shadow away and be gone before Jack could do anything about it. If he had stayed so far then maybe… “I know you, Gabriel. I love you. And after everything we’ve been through I want you at my side again.”

“But Jack…”

Jack’s voice was firm, his gaze unwavering as he met Gabriel’s. “I’m not afraid of you, Gabriel. And I’m not afraid of Reaper.”

“Maybe you should be,” retorted Gabriel, sounding less convinced now.

“Well, I’m not. Who knows? Maybe being close to me will help you, too. Just… I don’t wanna be alone tonight, Gabe. Please?”

Gabriel frowned, huffed, fiddled with the box of sleeping pills, huffed again.

“Alright, alright, fine.” He tossed the pills aside, pointedly ignoring Jack’s expression of delight. “Just for tonight. But Jack if something happens…”

“It won’t,” Jack cut in firmly, finally able to tug Gabriel towards the bed and shifting across to make room for him. “Now come on, I’m exhausted.”

With a final huff of defeat, Gabriel lowered himself into the bed beside Jack, rolling so that his back was towards him; having none of it, Jack snuggled up against his broad frame, looping his arm around Gabriel’s waist.

“Thought I was the big spoon,” Gabriel mumbled as he pulled the covers up over them.

Jack yawned. “Yeah, well… Guess it’s my turn now.” Sleep was hurriedly stealing over him, slurring his speech and forcing his eyes shut. “G’night Gabe…”

“Goodnight, Jackie…”

Neither of them budged an inch during the night, and slept well past sunrise, the longest rest they’d had in a very long time.


End file.
